Coromandel 3 - The East Coast

We spent 2 days on the East coast of the Coromandel – that is the coast we can see from the Bay of Plenty.  Driving across the top from West to East was a bit like all the driving in Northland – lots of farm land, forest – both indigenous and forestry – and windy, windy roads.  But once we got down onto the coast itself, we were on a wild and beautiful sea shore – most of the time.

Whitianga is on Mercury Bay, but has a huge inlet known as Whitianga Harbour running through it and beyond it.  So there are a lot of boats.  A passenger ferry across to Cooks Bay, and a number of fishing and recreational are in the main bay, but as we drove through what seemed to be a residential suburb, we suddenly saw yacht masts.  With a bit of investigation, we found a whole lot of canals which have been excavated so people can “park” their boats outside their “beach houses”.  So OTT!

Then down the coast to Hahei.  This is an amazing beach – big, white, firm – and really not crowded.  We spent a night at the holiday park, and a walk on the beach and halfway up a huge hill (then I rebelled) and an evening sitting on the beach was wonderful.  We went in at 8.00pm for dinner and it was still sunny.

View over Hahei Beach

The other great attraction at Hahei is its proximity to Cathedral Cove. We drove to the parking early in the morning and did the walk down to the cove.  Wonderful views along the way of other coves, and a great walk through the forest.  Pete surprised a hare and got an amazing photo, and then we came across some Californian Quail having a sand bath.  They were imported originally as game birds but aren’t hunted much now.  Later on the walk we saw a mom quail with two babies – we were walking down the path and there were others a bit closer to her, so she hid the babies in the bush and then ran up and down the path trying to distract the people from where her babies were.  Somehow, she didn’t seem afraid of us, and rounded up her babies when we were right nearby, calling them until they joined her before scuttling into the bush.

Cathedral Cove is amazing – you come down onto the beach at Mares Leg Cove and then go through the big arch into Cathedral Cove.  The white sandstone cliffs are unstable and you are meant to keep away, but they are so beautiful, you can’t help taking the chance.  We were there early – we only met 2 people on the path and we were first on the beach followed by another 3 people – and that was all for a while.  There is no way to get there by land except along the DOC path – when they filmed the opening scenes of Prince Caspian there, they brought people in by boat.  This keeps the beach fairly secluded – although we have not found New Zealand beaches overcrowded.  Maybe we are just there at the right times!

By the time we started to make our way back up the path, there were masses of people coming down – including annoying groups of Koreans and Americans.  It really pays to be early birds.  Talking of birds, we sat on a bench overlooking Stingray Cove and just listened to the Tuis calling each other in the forest – I don’t know many birds as melodious as they are.

Our next stop was Hot Water Beach – there are hot water springs which can be accessed 2 hrs on either side of low tide.  If you dig a hole in the sand it fills with hot water seeping up from 2 fissures which are heated by magma about 2 km below the surface.  Apparently, the water can reach temps of 65° C.  We were there towards the end of the window of opportunity, so the hot water was mostly where the waves were breaking.  People were sitting on the sand, with cold waves breaking over them and hot water under them – lovely!  We stood on the edge with hot water under our feet and cold on top.    This is one of the big tourist attractions on the Coromandel, so the beach was buzzing – you can hire a spade from the café for $5 (about R30) and although it was quite late to be digging, people were still pouring across the beach, hired spades in hand.  We walked along the water line instead of the “direct route” and had a much nicer walk on firm, un-churned sand.  The sand is rough and pinkish here with lots of crushed shell in it.  The shelf is also steeper, so there are actually waves – not real waves by SA standards, but quite big ones by NZ standards! And then there were a lot of starfish being tumbled in the waves - we threw a few back.

We were at Hot Water Beach 15 years ago – admittedly in winter – but I don’t remember the infrastructure for so much tourism being there – now it is big business.  I heard someone in the Info Centre at Tauranga today asking about getting there from Tauranga as a day trip – and it’s quite a way!  Tourism has definitely grown in the last decade.

We stayed in a Holiday Park and as I walked to the showers, I remembered the “Rotel” we had seen in the South Island 2 years ago.  It was a huge orange truck and trailer that pulled up at the camp site we were staying at.  The trailer was unhitched and the side opened up – and, voila! It was a hotel!  A series of “rooms” – more like spaces for a coffin – 3 levels high – and a group of about 40 tourists – mostly elderly and German.  They travel around to different attractions in an orange bus and then come to sleep and have dinner at the camp site.  What made me think about them was the way they walked from the bus to the ablutions in their underwear – men and women, old and white and flabby and all – while the rest of us covered up!   Well, there was no Rotel at Hahei, but at Hot Water Beach, as we were washing sand off our feet, I saw a whole lot of elderly german tourists walking down onto the beach – and as we drove out of the parking lot, there the bus was! 

The rest of the road, especially between Whangamata, Whiritoa and Waihi is very windy and Nic prefers to travel all the way round via Thames to get to Hahei – she hates windy roads!

And then home for a night before meeting Richard and Vanessa in the Karangahake Gorge.